MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Mexican journalist who covered one of the country’s most dangerous crime zones was killed by gunmen Sunday and two of his government-assigned bodyguards were wounded, authorities said.
The web news page of reporter Alejandro Martínez confirmed his death. The page covered community news and crime in Celaya, the most dangerous city for police officers in Mexico.
Celaya police said Martinez was shot dead by assailants riding in another vehicle. The department said the two bodyguards were being treated for injuries but did not say what their conditions were.
The journalist had been given police protection after reporting receiving threats. Prosecutors in the north-central state of Guanajuato said they were investigating the killing.
Martínez reported a fatal car crash on a dangerous stretch of highway just hours before he was attacked. His injured bodyguards took him to a hospital, where he died.
Guanajuato has the highest murder rate of all 32 states in Mexico, largely due to a years-long turf war between the Jalisco drug cartel and the local Santa Rosa de Lima gang. A total of 18 Celaya police officers have been shot dead this year in the city of half a million people. Drug gangs are suspected of most of the killings.
Media staff are regularly targeted in Mexicooften in direct retaliation for their work on issues such as corruption and the the country is notorious for its violence drug dealers.
In April, Roberto Figueroa, who covered local politics and built a following on social media through satirical videos, published was found dead in a car in his hometown of Huitzilac in Morelos, a state south of Mexico City where drug violence is common.
Since 2000, 141 Mexican journalists and other media workers have been killed, at least 61 in retaliation for their work, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. All but a handful of the killings and kidnappings remain unsolved.
